Discussion question your group will work through:
1.Ortlund opens by acknowledging that most Christians already feel the call to grow — but many are confused about how. How would you have answered the question "how do Christians grow?" before picking up this book? What assumptions or methods have shaped your approach to sanctification?
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About This Study Guide
Dane Ortlund's Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners (2021) is a pastoral and theologically rich guide to the often-misunderstood question of how Christians actually grow. Ortlund's central thesis is disarmingly simple: genuine sanctification is not a matter of trying harder, doing more, or accumulating better spiritual habits. It is a matter of going deeper — deeper into the grace of Jesus Christ, deeper into the gospel truths that saved us in the first place. Drawing on the wisdom of figures such as John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Goodwin, and Herman Bavinck, Ortlund argues that the engine of Christian growth is not self-improvement but an ever-expanding knowledge of and union with Jesus himself. The book is anchored in 2 Peter 3:18 — "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" — and unfolds what it looks like to do exactly that.
This study guide is designed for use in a small group or individual devotional study over ten weeks. The pattern for each week is simple: read the assigned chapter before your group meets (or before your personal study time), spend time journaling your initial reactions and honest responses to what struck you, and then work through the discussion questions together in prayer and conversation. You will get the most out of this guide if you resist the urge to give "correct" answers and instead bring your actual experience — your struggles, your doubts, your moments of recognition — to the table. The questions are designed to move from comprehension to application to reflection, ending each week with a prayer that tries to put the chapter's truths into your own mouth before God.
By the end of this guide, you should have a clearer, more hopeful, and more Christ-centered vision of what it means to grow as a Christian. You will likely find that the very things you thought were obstacles to growth — your weakness, your repeated failures, your sense of spiritual dryness — are precisely the places where the grace of Jesus Christ does its deepest work. Ortlund's great pastoral gift is making the gospel feel not like the starting line you left behind, but like the inexhaustible well you return to every single day.
11-Week Schedule
- Week 1Introduction — Real Change for Real Sinners8 questions
- Week 2Chapter 1 — Jesus8 questions
- Week 3Chapter 2 — Despair8 questions
- Week 4Chapter 3 — Union8 questions
- Week 5Chapter 4 — Identity8 questions
- Week 6Chapter 5 — The Bible8 questions
- Week 7Chapter 6 — Prayer8 questions
- Week 8Chapter 7 — Suffering8 questions
- Week 9Chapter 8 — Obedience8 questions
- Week 10Chapter 9 — Means of Grace8 questions
- Week 11Review & Reflection8 questions
Week 1: Introduction — Real Change for Real Sinners
Free sampleRead the Introduction of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passage: 2 Peter 3:18.
1.Ortlund opens by acknowledging that most Christians already feel the call to grow — but many are confused about how. How would you have answered the question "how do Christians grow?" before picking up this book? What assumptions or methods have shaped your approach to sanctification?
2.The subtitle of the book is "Real Change for Real Sinners." What do you think Ortlund is signaling with that phrase? Who is this book written for, and why does the word "real" appear twice?
3.Ortlund anchors the entire book in 2 Peter 3:18 — "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." What is the difference between growing in knowledge *about* Jesus and growing in the grace and knowledge *of* Jesus? Why does the distinction matter?
4.From the outset, Ortlund draws a contrast between "going deeper" and "doing more." In your own Christian life, where have you tended to default to "doing more" as your strategy for growth? What fruit (or lack of fruit) has that produced?
5.Ortlund leans heavily on historical theologians throughout the book — Owen, Edwards, Goodwin, and others. What is your initial reaction to that approach? Do you find older voices in theology helpful, intimidating, or irrelevant? Why?
a.Is there a figure from church history whose writings have shaped your own faith? How did you encounter them?
b.What might it mean that Christians across many centuries have wrestled with the same questions about growth that we wrestle with today?
6.Ortlund writes for people who feel stuck — who have tried and failed to grow, or who wonder if genuine change is really possible for someone like them. Do you identify with that feeling? What has made you feel stuck in your spiritual life?
7.How does centering sanctification on Christ — rather than on programs, disciplines, or willpower — change the emotional texture of the Christian life? Does it feel like relief, or does it feel like it might be too easy? Be honest.
8.As you begin this study, what is the one thing you most hope to understand or experience differently about Christian growth by the time you finish?
Week 2: Chapter 1 — Jesus
Read Chapter 1 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Matthew 11:28–30; John 15:1–11.
1.Ortlund argues that the engine of all genuine Christian growth is an ever-deepening knowledge of Jesus Christ himself — not principles, methods, or even disciplines. Why do you think this needs to be argued? What would tempt a Christian to seek growth elsewhere?
Week 3: Chapter 2 — Despair
Read Chapter 2 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Romans 7:14–25; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10.
1.Ortlund's claim that despair is a *friend* of sanctification, not an enemy, is counterintuitive. What is your gut reaction to that idea? Does it feel like a dangerous invitation to passivity, or does it resonate with your experience?
Week 4: Chapter 3 — Union
Read Chapter 3 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: John 17:20–23; Galatians 2:20; 1 Corinthians 6:17.
1.Ortlund describes union with Christ as the "skeleton" of the Christian life — everything else hangs on it. Before reading this chapter, how prominent was the doctrine of union with Christ in your understanding of your faith? Was it a central reality or a theological footnote?
Week 5: Chapter 4 — Identity
Read Chapter 4 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Romans 6:1–14; Ephesians 1:3–14; 2 Corinthians 5:17.
1.Ortlund distinguishes between identity *earned* through behavior and identity *given* through what Christ has accomplished. Why does the direction of that arrow matter so much? What goes wrong when Christians try to build their identity through spiritual performance?
Week 6: Chapter 5 — The Bible
Read Chapter 5 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Psalm 119:105; John 5:39–40; 2 Timothy 3:16–17.
1.Ortlund warns against a kind of Bible reading that is merely informational — gathering facts, tracking themes, completing reading plans — without being relational, a meeting with the living Christ on every page. Does that warning land? Which mode of Bible reading have you most often defaulted to?
Week 7: Chapter 6 — Prayer
Read Chapter 6 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Matthew 6:5–13; Romans 8:26–27; Hebrews 4:14–16.
1.Be honest: how would you describe your prayer life right now — not what you think it should be, but what it actually is? What makes prayer difficult, dull, or inconsistent for you?
Week 8: Chapter 7 — Suffering
Read Chapter 7 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Romans 5:3–5; 2 Corinthians 4:7–18; James 1:2–4.
1.Ortlund argues that suffering is not a detour from sanctification but one of its primary roads. How does this land in your gut, not just your head? Is there a season of suffering in your past or present that you can begin to see differently through this lens?
Week 9: Chapter 8 — Obedience
Read Chapter 8 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: John 14:15; Romans 6:17–18; 1 John 5:3.
1.Ortlund is careful to insist that obedience is not the *root* of the Christian life but the *fruit*. Why does this distinction matter so much? What goes wrong — spiritually, emotionally, relationally — when obedience is treated as the foundation rather than the overflow?
Week 10: Chapter 9 — Means of Grace
Read Chapter 9 of Deeper by Dane Ortlund. Key passages: Acts 2:42–47; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; Colossians 3:16.
1.Ortlund insists that going deeper in Christ is not a private, purely interior journey — it is sustained and nourished by the visible, communal means of grace Christ has given his church. Why do you think so many Christians in our culture treat spiritual growth as primarily a personal and private matter?
Week 11: Review & Reflection
No new reading this week. Review your notes, journal entries, and highlights from Deeper by Dane Ortlund.
1.Looking back over the whole book, what single chapter or idea hit you hardest — the one you are still thinking about? What made it so significant for you specifically, given your history, your temperament, or your current season of life?
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